How to quiet your mind without alcohol?
 

My mind's been a freight train lately and it's effecting my health greatly. How do you all quiet the freight train of your mind once you stop drinking or engaging in other addictions?

one of the resons i drank was to slow and quiet my brain.i had the problem before i ever started drinking- when i was a kid mom took me to afew different docs to find out the problem.luckily she wouldnt allow meds for me back then. i can only imagine what that would have caused.
when i got sober and after the misery and fog lifted, sheeeweee was it crazy! i had people that started getting to know me say,"youre not even here right now." it showed my mind was racing.
didnt matter what i did, unless i was completely physically exhausted(and it still could happen then, only slower) i couldnt stop the racing thoughts.
close to a year in i talked to a friend about it. he asked a great question:
"have ya ever talked to your doctor about this?"
HUH!!
now, this was for me and me alone, but a visit to my doctor and talking about it revealed that them racing thoughts and inability to concentrate and quite a few other things i experienced were symptoms of depression.
he prescribed an antidepressant, which i was leary of at first and for the first 2 weeks it felt reeeeeaallly weird- my brain slowed down, i could read andremember what i was reading- i could concentrate better. and i didnt feel stoned.
it didnt seem normal. talked to my friend about it and he said,"welcome to normalcy. youre supposed to be able to concentrate and focus."

idk how long youve been sober, but id suggest talking to your doctor about this.

Exercise -- bicycle rides, walks -- it's good to get outside.
Good foods, vitamins and plenty of water.
Sleep as often as one can in early sobriety.
There's a lot of healing needed -- much happens when sleeping.
Mountainmanbob

mountainmanbob has some good suggestions. What helps me: walking until I'm tired (looong walk), sleep, music, good movie, and spending time with a trusted sober alcoholic/friend. My head suddenly got crazy about 45 min ago. Scary. I'm listening to music right now. It helps when i talk with a sober friend who has known me for years and they can say the words that I can't say to myself at certain times like: Adam, you are living on grace. No need to fix a headache with a sledgehammer.

I do a tremendous amount of walking with my dog, meditation has worked wonders with my mind as well as Yoga.

Lots of good suggestions here already, I have an anxious mind as well. Exercise, even just walking and being outside really helps me. Also anything that can keep me in the moment, rather than the future or past. Meditation of any kind, reading about mindfulness, etc. I have a couple of anxiety related podcasts I've been listening to on the way to and from work that have been helpful.

It calms me greatly to pet my dogs and cats. And especially if the cat is in my lap while I'm petting them. The purring and warmth soothe my soul. :)

Thanks for all the great suggestions!

Great suggestions here. For me I could calm myself with alcohol until it started to wear off. Then the anxiety would come on much worse than before I started to drink. When I stopped drinking I felt much calmer after a few sobering days. Don't forget how bad it was. For every minute alcohol makes you fell better you pay five fold in misery when the alcohol starts to wear off.

I agree. I used alcohol too to quiet racing thoughts, all the while it was making it worse. With the little sobriety time I have, it's getting better.

Exercise is also working for me. Even when I don't feel like it, those are some of the best times to go.

I agree with the others. Exercise, cleaning house, yard work, meditation. GOOD VITAMINS have been a lifesaver for me. I've really ramped up the B vitamins.

Scott, could I ask what anxiety podcasts you listen too? I've been doing a lot of research on this too, but have yet to find something that I like.

Thanks for sharing your experience, TomSteve. I've been on a low dose anti depressant/anti anxiety for a number of years. I'm going through a difficult family situation currently so maybe it's just temporary? I am going to talk with my doctor, though. I have an appointment scheduled. Maybe I'll need to increase meds for a short time.

I thought maybe it was just what happens in sobriety, that I'm doing something wrong. If we all drank or whatever to stop the freight train of the mind, what does everyone do once sober....

I've been sober for a few years but just finished my step work recently.

Thanks Mountainmanbob. I haven't been doing most of these things and I need to.

Sleep---lately the freight train in the mind hits worse when I'm trying to sleep, so I don't think I've been having refreshed sleep. I wake up still feeling tired and not well-rested, even after a good amount of sleep.

I like your idea to walk until tired. Today I listened to music, thinking I could focus on the lyrics instead of thoughts in my head. TV has been distracting, too, but I get bored with it.

I don't like calling my sponsor over the weekend to give her a break and be able to spend time with family but I plan on calling her tomorrow. I know she said that my obsessing in my mind was getting a lot better except for this one situation.

I love the idea of what your friend said to you. That's what I need; something to tell myself. I try turning to thoughts of God but it's impossible to do when the mind just won't stop.

All great ideas and ones I would suggest to others.... I suck at taking my own advice!

I did try some deep breathing today, but I got distracted and didn't stick with it. What kind of meditation do you do? I always worry about the thoughts that are going to come up while I try to meditate. I had tried it a while ago and it helped, but then I stopped once this stuff occurred.

I did go to yoga last week, and felt a lot better that night. My husband noticed a difference in how I seemed, too. Yoga does get me out of my head.

Having an anxious mind is so draining. At least I'm staying away from caffeine.

I do try to do things in the moment, like reading or crafts or something but it's still hard to concentrate.

Scott would you mind sharing the podcasts you listen to that you find helpful? Usually listening to Joel Osteen in the car helps me, but lately even that isn't.

Quieting my brain was a big issue on the first year or so - even today some circumstances get me bouncing around. I find if I engage in something that make me focus - a task of some sort - that helps.

Sometimes at night if I wake up I turn on some meditation music on youtube and listen on my head phones while lying in bed. Generally this will allow me to drift back off to sleep pretty quickly.

Thanks for the post - sharing what you go thru is very helpful to others.

Glad you're here

I agree!! I love petting my dogs and I usually do when I feel anxious but it's strange because I've felt so much worse lately that I haven't even been able to do that much, or it just helps for a very short time. I think I'm too focused on my mind to do what I should do to feel better.

Plus I've just been having weird medical/health stuff too lately ever since my anxiety has increased. I'm sure it's just anxiety manifesting itself in physical symptoms, but I'm concerned. It's terrible how anxiety can affect the body and not just the mind.

All good points, thank you.

You're so right. Thank you.